Aaron Cook, the world No 1 taekwondo fighter controversially omitted from the
British Olympic team this summer, admits he may be forced to switch
nationalities if he is to compete at the Rio Games in 2016.

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Out in the cold: Aaron Cook was controversially left out of TeamGB's Olympic squad by the British authoritiesPhoto: AP

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Testing times: Cook trains in the specially made gym in his parents' garden, away from the British World Class Performance ProgrammePhoto: GETTY IMAGES

The Dorchester-born athlete claims he has no future under the current British Taekwondo regime and has accused the organisation’s president, Adrian Tranter, performance director Gary Hall and coach Steven Jennings of running a “dictatorship”.

“I want to win gold in Rio and, ideally, I’d love it to be for Great Britain but as it stands at the moment with the likes of Gary Hall, Steven Jennings and Adrian Tranter involved, there is just no possible way that I can work with these people,” he said.

“Unless they resign or someone takes them out of the equation, it’s going to be impossible to work with them. In the worst-case scenario, I’ve got to look at another country. If that’s the only way I can win gold in Rio, then that’s what I’ve got to do.”

Cook believes his omission from the Olympic team was down to politics following his decision in 2011 to quit the sport’s World Class Performance Programme and go it alone. Lutalo Muhammad, who was ranked 56th in the world, was selected ahead of him for London in the -80kg division.

Muhammad lost his opening fight before coming through the repechage to win a bronze medal, but Cook is still smarting from a sense of injustice.

“I’m not saying I would have won gold but I’d beaten the gold medallist twice this year convincingly,” said Cook. “I’d beaten the silver medallist three times in the past year, I beat Lutalo the last time we fought and I’d beaten the Italian who was the other bronze medallist the last time we fought. So I’d beaten all the medallists in my last fights, and that tells you all you need to know.”

Cook, who is currently training in Washington DC, believes the events of the summer mean he has no chance of being selected for other major events, including next year’s world championships in Puebla, Mexico. He has written to the president of the World Taekwondo Federation asking for permission to compete there as an independent, though it is unthinkable that he would be allowed to do so at the Rio Olympics.

Barring a change of leadership at British Taekwondo, Cook admits his only other option would be to switch allegiance to another country, with the United States likely to be high on his list. That would require him to serve a three-year qualifying period during which he would be ineligible for international championships.

“I dreamed of winning a gold medal for Great Britain and holding my flag high and singing the national anthem,” he said. “It would be really sad to let that go and I don’t want to let that go, but I want an Olympic gold medal around my neck and I’ll do anything I can to make that happen.” Hall insisted the door was still open for Cook and denied the athlete’s decision to quit the World Class Performance programme was a bar to selection.

He said: “We will continue to try and engage with Aaron though clearly it is up to him as to whether he wants to make himself available for Great Britain in the future.”